Doing Elite Interviews in Feminist Research: Confessions of a Born-Again Observationist

Abstract

Undertaking ‘elite’ level interviewing for feminist research is a tricky business. There are challenges because there are almost always too few women in leadership, making them easily identifiable in any sample. It takes time, indeed sometime years, to build up the required trust and empathy with women/feminist insiders, and the relationship between the researcher and subject is often very fragile and can be easily destroyed. This chapter considers the challenge of walking this tightrope, and learning how to be a ‘feminist critical friend’. It also highlights the limitations of interviews as a form of data because of the predictable positions those in power are likely to take, and because of the constraints-some valid, some not-placed on researchers due to ethics requirements. Lastly, the chapter explores why I have embraced new techniques, including ‘rapid ethnographic’ approaches in my most recent project, to overcome the limitations of interviews as the sole data gathering approach in my feminist research.